Record Number of SVSA Awardees

The 6th annual Spartan Volunteer Service Award (SVSA) Banquet, which took place in January 2024, honored a record number of students. The awards are presented by CCEL and the MSU Office of the President.

“It's so important to recognize students when they do this kind of work,” said CCEL Assistant Director K.C. Keyton. “I'm so proud of each one of the students that is able to juggle personal time, school, maybe a job, and they obtain 100 hours. In today's world that is a lot, and just for them to see that achievement makes me proud every year.”

This year's 130 recipients represented the highest number since the award's inception. According to CCEL, these students logged 23,628 total hours of community engagement for the year, representing a $751,370 financial equivalent. Additionally, this year's SVSA awardees represented a diverse group of colleges and majors, ranging from elementary education, jazz, and Spanish to civil engineering, neuroscience, and human biology.

“The diversity of [students receiving] the award really speaks for itself,” Keyton said. “There's a lot of diversity in the majors as well. It's really cool to see that there are students that are interested and are making it a priority to do this kind of work in the community.”

Although volunteering was a popular way for students to engage with the community, they could log hours for more than just direct service. “This year we have 15 engagement strategies that we believe lead to social change,” Keyton said. “This includes direct service (volunteering), but it also includes activities like research, fundraising, and being on the executive board of a registered student organization (RSO), fraternity/sorority, or club.”

Hady Omar, who received the SVSA for the fourth consecutive year, was the featured student speaker. Omar, a fourth-year student majoring in human biology and religious studies, shared that the majority of his community engagement was with the MSU Pediatric Clinic, an ongoing COVID-19 research project, and the Arab Cultural Society, an RSO on campus. “This opportunity has given me the experience and knowledge of what the medical field may look like as a practicing physician,” he said. “It's one of the reasons why I know medicine is the field I want to go into.”

But his community-engaged service meant more than simply career exploration, Omar said. “[This award] represents what we can strive to be, altruistic members of our communities. It shows the best parts of us, and it shows that amidst all the suffering in the world, compassion and hope will win.”